The Red Dragon's Curse
by gazpachos-fruit-stand
Summary: AU. One day, John Egbert makes an unbelievable discovery. Dragons exist. And now one is sitting in his living room. Rated T for Karkat's mouth.


**Hey, welcome to Gazpacho's Fruit Stand! Looking for some fruit? Well, I'm out of fruit at the moment. Here, have a fanfic instead! It's my first one, so I hope you enjoy it. Please, tell me what you think.**

**Disclaimer: I'd think it would be obvious, but I guess I still have to say it. I don't own Homestuck, or any part of it. This will be true for the entire fanfic. The man who does own it goes by many names: The Devil, Lucifer, Satan, but most know him as Andrew Hussie. He owns it all. Even my soul.**

**And with that, let's continue!**

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"Dragons have been a part of mythology for centuries all across the globe. From the multi-headed hydra in Greek legends to the Chinese dragon associated with positions of power, the mention of dragons is easily found throughout history. However, there is a particular legend that was, until recently, known by very few.

"It is recorded in the journal of an English traveler from the 14th century and was passed down through his descendants. The legend states that throughout all mythology, there has been a set of twelve different dragons that each form the roots of every tale about the monstrous beasts.

"They vary greatly in size and shape, and each one has its own unique scale color which designates their strength and forms a hierarchy among them. Their lifespan lasts considerably longer than humans and each dragon lays one egg in its lifetime to carry on into the next generation. The eggs can lay dormant for many years until it is time for them to hatch blah blah dragon babies blah blah boring crazy ramblings and now I've lost interest completely."

My cousin is always sending me e-mails of stuff like this. He loves old legends and fairy tales ands anything adventurous. He's been traveling around a lot for the past couple of years.

This time he sent a message with the article. "Hello john old chap! Its been far too long since i saw you last. Luckily it seems that my most recent travels are taking me to your neck of the woods so ill be able to drop by and have a good chat! And dont worry ill be staying at a hotel so I wont impose on you and your roommate."

That means I'm going to have to clean the apartment. Great. Oh well, it's always nice to see Jake.

Looks like he sent this a few days ago. I better check with him to see when he wants to come over. I close the e-mail window on my laptop and open pesterchum.

ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering golthogasTerror [GT]  
EB: hey jake. i just got your latest email. when did you want to stop by?  
GT: Oh hi john! Ive been meaning to call you about that. I was hoping tomorrow. I know its sort of short notice but i dont have much free time.  
EB: its ok that works. tomorrows saturday so i wont be busy.  
GT: Capital! Im free around 3. Does that sound good?  
EB: yep. ill see you then.  
GT: Oh right! I wanted to ask.  
GT: What did you think of the article i sent you?  
EB: honestly it just seems like the ramblings of a crazy person who lived 500 years ago.  
GT: Yeah i guess someone would have to be really bonkers to believe that.  
GT: But i still think the legend is interesting.  
EB: i suppose so.  
GT: I got to go. See you tomorrow.  
EB: ok bye.  
ectoBiologist [EB] ceased pestering golthogasTerror [GT]

Alright. Now that that's settled I better tell my roommate. I close my laptop and yell to his room from my place on the couch.

"Dave!"

No answer.

"DaveDaveDaveDaveDaaaaaaaaave!"

"Jesus fucking Christ, what Egbert!?" He finally answers from the doorway to his room.

"Oh sorry Your Highness. Did I wake you from your royal nap?" I say in the most mocking way I can. "Just wanted to let you know that my cousin Jake's in town so he's coming over for a visit around three tomorrow." He enters the living room in gray sweatpants and his trademark shades.

"Whatever, just don't expect me to be conscious. I plan on getting plenty of sleep during the day tomorrow." He walks to the fridge and retrieves a bottle of apple juice.

"Lazy ass." I chuckle.

"Hey, I can't help it. It takes a lot of beauty sleep to look this good." He dramatically flips his hair and I laugh again.

I glance at the microwave clock. It's 7:16 p.m. That's when I realize I haven't eaten anything since lunch. I turn to Dave. "Hey, have you had dinner yet?"

"Yeah I ate earlier."

"Well I'm gonna get some Chinese from that place on Oak Street. Want anything?"

"Nah, I'm going back to bed." He yawns and heads to his room.

"'Kay, night." I call after him.

After I hear the door close I pull out my phone and call the Chinese restaurant. As soon as I place my order, I throw on my shoes and head out to go pick it up.

The walk to the restaurant takes about 15 minutes. Soon I have my carry-out meal in hand and I'm heading back when I hear a sound coming from an alleyway. I don't think much of it. It's probably just a stray cat.

Until a trashcan falls over from behind a dumpster with a bang and a loud exclamation of "Shit!"

Someone's back there.

Someone's back there and I should just keep walking because it could be a mugger or a rapist or a murderer.

Being the smart person that I am, though, I stop because I'm thinking maybe someone needs some help and besides, this is a really safe town. But still, you never know. Why can't I just keep going? One of these days, my kindness and stupidity are going to be the death of me.

I hope today is not that day.

I slowly walk towards the other side of the dumpster. There's an old rusty hammer sitting next to a trashcan. I pick it up. At least it might provide me with some sort of protection.

I continue to quietly approach the source of the sound. My breath quickens as I reach the edge of the dumpster. I gather my courage and move to look around the corner. What I see has me jumping back with a surprised yell and I land on my ass.

It's a person with gray skin. _Gray skin_. And _colored horns_. His breathing is heavy and I can see pointed teeth past his lips. Whatever he is, he's definitely a carnivore.

He sits there without moving. Then I realize that I've been staring at him for a while. I glance down and see that he's clutching his side. He's hurt! His shirt's bloody and there's a gash on the side of his right thigh.

I should be more afraid. There's some unknown creature with razor-sharp teeth and - oh God, are those claws? - in front of me and any sane person would be running for the hills. But I'm not. Because I see fear in his eyes. He's absolutely terrified and there's no way I can walk away from that.

I crawl forward to help him. "Stay back!" He yells.

"But you're hurt. You need to go to the hospital." I reach my hand out to touch his arm.

"I SAID STAY BACK!" I flinch and lower my hand, but I move my leg forward so I'm kneeling in front of him. "No hospitals." He pants out. "In case you're too much of a fucking retard to notice, I'm not exactly human."

Still determined to help, I come up with an alternative. "Alright then. I'll take you to my apartment. I can bandage you up there." He looks at me like I'm out of my mind.

"Are you insane? You're willing to let an inhuman stranger you found in an alley into your apartment. Are you asking to get murdered?"

"I don't really care. I'm not gonna let you bleed to death out here." Now he looks at me with a confused expression.

"You really are retarded." He grumbles.

I laugh and move a bit closer. When he doesn't protest, I carefully position myself at his side and sling his arm around my shoulder. Slowly, I help him to his feet.

"Ow ow ow fuck ow holy fucking hell!" I suppress a chuckle at his expense.

"I'm John Egbert, by the way." I say when we're both standing.

"Thanks, but I didn't fucking ask."

"I just figured if I'm showing a murderer where I live I might as well tell him my name." He simply makes a "tch" noise at this and looks away.

We hobble forward a few steps and I gently lean down to pick up my forgotten Chinese dinner. "Are you hungry? We can share this after I get you fixed up. It's orange chicken." When he doesn't reply I continue to walk him out of the alleyway.

The sun has set now and the street is empty. Good, at least we won't attract attention.

After walking in silence for a while, he finally speaks, "I'm... Karkat." He mumbles it so I almost don't catch it.

"Karkat?" I say, testing out the strange name. "That's a very different name."

"Well I'm a very different person."

"Heh. You're definitely right about that." For the rest of the walk home, neither of us talk. In the silence, I'm able to observe Karkat's horns since he's a few inches shorter than I am. Half-hidden by his messy black hair, they're small and kind of... cute. Though, I doubt Karkat would appreciate me saying so.

Finally we reach the apartment building. We head to floor four and enter apartment 413.

The living room is dark and before we can head for the couch, a light appears from the direction of the bathroom. Dave steps out and we all freeze. As he stares at us, I can't find any words to explain this situation.

Luckily, Dave is the first to break the silence. "I don't want to know." He starts heading towards his room. "If you're gonna bring in possible murderers off the streets, leave me out of it." The door to his room closes.

After a bit of stunned silence, I burst out laughing.

"S-sorry," I say when the laughter subsides, "that was my roommate, Dave." Karkat just stares at me with a look that says "What the actual fuck."

At last, we move to the couch so I can treat Karkat's wounds.

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**Thanks for reading! I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up, but I'll try to make it soon. I can't make any promises, though. All reviews are greatly appreciated.**

**Thanks for shopping at Gazpacho's Fruit Stand. Come again!**


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